The Office of Special Counsel’s announcement last spring of its enforcement actions against two IRS employees who in 2012 engaged in partisan political activities in violation of the Hatch Act did not surprise me very much. After all, the alleged misconduct happened during a presidential election year. What did surprise me, though, was the technologically simplistic nature of the misconduct: federal employees conveying over the telephone partisan political messages. More specifically, one IRS customer service representative urged taxpayers to vote for President Barack Obama. The other employee, a tax advisory specialist, told a taxpayer she was “for” Democrats and…